Energies 2015, 8, 10335-10353; doi:10.

3390/en80910335
OPEN ACCESS

energies
ISSN 1996-1073
www.mdpi.com/journal/energies
Article

Control and Performance Evaluation of Multiphase FSPM Motor

in Low-Speed Region for Hybrid Electric Vehicles
Feng Yu 1, Ming Cheng 1,*, Kwok Tong Chau 2 and Feng Li 1

1
School of Electrical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China;
E-Mails: yufeng6575@sina.com (F.Y.); lfeng@ujs.edu.cn (F.L.)
2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
China; E-Mail: ktchau@eee.hku.hk

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: mcheng@seu.edu.cn;

Tel.: +86-25-8379-4152; Fax: +86-25-8379-1696.

Academic Editor: Joeri van Mierlo

Received: 29 July 2015 / Accepted: 10 September 2015 / Published: 21 September 2015

Abstract: The flux-switching permanent-magnet (FSPM) motor has been viewed as a

highly reliable machine with both armature windings and magnets on the stator. Owing to
the high torque-production capability with low torque ripple, FSPM motors with a higher
number of phases are potential candidates for traction applications in hybrid electric
vehicles (HEVs). However, existing research has mostly focused on the principles and
static performance of multiphase FSPM motors, and little attention has been paid to
advanced control strategies. In this paper, the fully decoupled current control of
a 36/34-pole nine-phase FSPM (NP-FSPM) motor is developed and the performance under
different operating conditions is investigated. The aim of the design is to alleviate cross
coupling effects and unwanted low-order stator harmonic currents, to guarantee fast
transient response and small steady-state error. In addition, its fault-tolerance is further
elaborated. These features are very important in automotive applications where low torque
pulsation, high fault-tolerant capability and high dynamic performance are of major
importance. Firstly, the research status of multiphase FSPM motors is briefly reviewed.
Secondly, the mathematical model in the dq reference frames and control strategies are
presented. Then, the control and performance of the NP-FSPM motor are evaluated by
using MATLAB/Simulink. Finally, experiments on an NP-FSPM motor prototype are
carried out to validate the study.
Energies 2015, 8 10336

Keywords: FSPM; multiphase; hybrid electric vehicle; fully-decoupled; model; control

1. Introduction

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have attracted increasing attention owing to high demand for
fuel-economy and environmentally friendly vehicles, which combine an internal combustion
engine (ICE) and one or more electric motors [1–3]. Depending on the drivetrain, power sources are
provided in various configurations to improve fuel consumption, emission, and performance.
In general, permanent magnet (PM) brushless machines are preferred for automation applications,
where high torque and energy efficiency are the most valuable attributes [4,5]. Among these, flux
switching permanent magnet (FSPM) motors are gaining interest as competitive candidates for the next
generation of hybrid drivetrain application, because of their simple and rugged construction, sinusoidal
back-electromotive force (EMF), easy thermal management, compact size and high torque
capability [6,7]. To further promote the reliability and torque density of the motor drive, a nine-phase
FSPM (NP-FSPM) motor drive has been proposed for hybrid electric vehicles recently [8,9].
Multiphase FSPM motor is a promising form for reducing the amplitude of torque pulsation and
increasing its frequency. Hence, four-, five-, six- and nine-phase FSPM motors have been successively
studied in conjunction with different stator/rotor pole numbers in recent years. By employing increased
winding redundancy compared to three phases, the stator winding of the multiphase FSPM motor can
keep on forming the circular rotating magnetic field when a fault occurs in one or even more
phases [10]. The static performance of FSPM motors with phase numbers ranging from four to six are
investigated in [11], and it demonstrates that FSPM motors with high phase numbers offer significant
benefits over three-phase topology in terms of torque density. In [12], design considerations for FSPM
motors with five-phase 10/18-pole and 10/19-pole for high reliability applications were presented,
showing that they inherently offer improved fault-tolerance and reduced PM material. In [8],
three topologies of NP-FSPM for low-speed and fault-tolerant applications were developed, and
a 36/34-pole NP-FSPM machine was chosen to achieve the negligible cogging torque. To prove the
high fault-tolerance, two fault-tolerant control techniques, namely remedial brushless AC (BLAC)
operation and remedial BLAC with harmonic current injection operation, are proposed for this
machine [13]. As a result, multiphase FSPM motors can be regarded as one potential power source for
HEV drive systems.
However, the current research on multiphase FSPM motors has mainly focused on the structure,
operating principles, and static torque performance. The main current control technique presented for
FSPM motors in the literature is hysteresis control [14,15], which provides a fast and simple solution
for multiphase FSPM motor drives, but it uses variable switching frequency that results in unbalanced
operation. In addition, the vector space decomposition (VSD) method in multiphase induction motors (IM)
and PM synchronous motors (PMSM) is a known conventional method [16–18]. However, the
operating principles and structure of FSPM motors are different from traditional IM and PMSM. For a
multiphase FSPM motor, the PMs and armature windings are all located on the stator, while its rotor
only consists of iron. Hence, the back-EMF and torque result from interaction between the motionless
Energies 2015, 8 10337

PM flux and rotor saliency, which differs from conventional multiphase PMSM [19]. Hence, control of
a multiphase FSPM motor is more challenging because of the low-order stator harmonic currents
arising from motor parameter inaccuracies and non-ideal behavior of the inverter.
Considering the points mentioned above, an NP-FSPM motor drive system for use in HEVs is
developed. The main focus of this paper is to develop the mathematical model in the dq reference
frames and to implement fully decoupled current controls. Additionally, the controllability in post-fault
operation is discussed. Both simulation and experiments are conducted to verify the low torque
pulsation, high fault-tolerant capability and high dynamic performance of the drive system.

2. Motor Features

Figure 1 shows the arrangement of a 34-rotor-pole, 36-stator-pole winding distribution prototype for
the NP-FSPM motor. There are four coils in each phase, e.g., four coils marked as “1” for phase 1, and
each coil surrounding only one tooth. The adjacent phases are spatially displaced by 2π/9 rad. Thus,
the resultant magneto-motive force (MMF) waveform will be established by nine equally spaced phase
windings. The detailed specifications of the NP-FSPM motor are tabulated in Table 1.
The NP-FSPM motor can provide a maximum torque of 220 N·m with a top speed of 500 rpm,
meeting the demands of low-speed high-torque applications. Nevertheless, the NP-FSPM motor also
suffers from narrow constant power speed range as in the traditional PMSMs, due to the constant
magnet flux provided by stator PMs.

Figure 1. 36/34-pole NP-FSPM machine. (a) Cross section; (b) Prototype of stator and rotor.

Nonlinear transient finite-element (FE) analysis is utilized to calculate the back electromotive force
(EMF) and the cogging torque of the machine.

Table 1. Key design parameters of the nine-phase flux-switching permanent-magnet

(NP-FSPM) motor.
Rated power 10 kW Rotor bore diameter 120 mm
Rated speed 500 rpm Air gap length 1 mm
Rated phase voltage 230 V Br of PMs 1.2 T
Rated phase current 4.83 A Resistance per coil 1.3 Ω
Stack length 155 mm Stator-PM magnetic flux 0.224 Wb
Stator inner diameter 260 mm Shaft length 180 mm
Stator outer diameter 327 mm Rotary inertia 0.05 kg·m2
Energies 2015, 8 10338

Figure 2a shows the back-EMF waveform of the machine at the rated speed of 500 rpm. As shown
in the figure, the back-EMF waveform is sinusoidal. Thus, this kind of NP-FSPM motor can be driven
as a brushless ac (BLAC) motor.
Unlike traditional PMSMs, the cogging torque of FSPM motors arises from the interaction between
the stator-PMs and rotor slots where the stator winding is unexcited, which is shown in Figure 2b.
It can be seen that the peak value of cogging torque is less than 0.5 N·m, only 0.25% of the rated
torque of the machine, due to the fact that the cogging torque decreases with increase in phase number
and the frequency of the cogging torque increases with phase number and is proportional to the half of
the stator pole number. Based on the FE analysis of the cogging torque, the low torque pulsation of the
machine design is confirmed [20].

Figure 2. Static performance. (a) Back-EMF; (b) Cogging torque.

In some literature, the mutual inductance is ignored in the vector-controlled multiphase motor drive
system, which could bring some defects to model accuracy in simulation. In this paper, the stator
inductance profiles are also obtained from FE solutions of the NP-FSPM motor and stored in look-up
tables of data that includes the rotor position dependence. Figure 3 shows the self- and mutual
inductances in phase 1.

Figure 3. Self- and mutual inductances in phase 1.

3. Mathematical Modeling Based on VSD

To explore the control strategies for the NP-FSPM motor system, the machine mathematical model
should adequately describe the dynamics of the drive system as simply as possible. In order to
Energies 2015, 8 10339

implement the VSD approach for a NP-FSPM motor, a minor modification should be firstly made in
such a way that the d-axis is chosen to be the rotor position and where the stator-PM flux-linkage of
phase 1 is the maximum. As a result, the following transformation matrices are adopted:
T(  )  CD(  ) (1)

1 cos  cos 2 cos 3 cos 4 cos 5 cos 6 cos 7  cos 8  1

0 sin  sin 2 sin 3 sin 4  sin 5 sin 6 sin 7  sin 8  1
1 cos 3 cos 6  cos 9 cos 12 cos 15 cos 18 cos 21 cos 24  3
2 sin 3 sin 6
C  0 cos sin 9 sin 12 sin 15 sin18 sin 21 sin 24  3
 1 5  cos 10  cos 15 cos 20 cos 25 cos 30  cos 35 cos 40   5 (2)
9
0 sin 5 sin10 sin15 sin 20  sin 25 sin 30  sin 35 sin 40  5
1 cos 7  cos 14 cos 21 cos 28 cos 35 cos 42 cos 49 cos 56   7
0 sin 7  sin14 sin 21 sin 28 sin 35 sin 42 sin 49 sin 56  7

 cos  sin  0 0 0 0 0 0  d1
  sin  cos  0 0 0 0 0 0  q1
 0 0 cos 3 sin 3 0 0 0 0  d3
  sin 3 cos 3 0  q3
D(  )   0 0 0 0 0
(3)
0 0 0 0 cos 5 sin 5 0 0  d5
 0 0 0 0  sin 5 cos 5 0 0  q5
 0 0 0 0 0 0 cos 7 sin 7  d7
 0 0 0 0 0 0  sin 7 cos 7 q7

where γ = 2π/9, and θ is the electrical rotor position. According to Kirchhoff’s current law, zero
sequence currents cannot flow into a symmetric star-connection winding, hence are neglected in this
paper. The rotational transformation matrix Equation (1) consists of the stationary frame
transformation matrix C and rotation matrix D(θ).
According to the VSD theory for the NP-FSPM motor, through Equation (1), the phase-variable
(current, voltage or flux linkage) are decoupled into four separate synchronous reference frames, which
are called d1-q1 plane and dh-qh (h = 3, 5, 7) plane in this paper, yielding a simple solution to the
description of the machine model.
In a perfectly symmetrical situation, with the rotational transformation matrix Equation (1), the
fundamental component and the harmonics of the order of 18k ± 1 (k = 0, 1, 2, 3 …) are mapped into
the d1-q1 plane, the harmonics of the order of 18k ± 3 are mapped into the d3-q3 plane, the order of
18k ± 5 are mapped into the d5-q5 plane, and the order of 18k ± 7 are mapped into d7-q7 plane.
Those harmonic components mapped in the d1-q1 plane contribute to the electromechanical energy
conversion, while dh-qh (h = 3, 5, 7) plane components do not generate electrical torque. As discussed
in [14], any imbalance in the stator windings or supply voltages causes the fundamental components
and all the harmonics to appear in each reference frame in the multiphase induction motor, which also
occurs in the multiphase FSPM motors. To verify the effectiveness of the controllability of harmonic
components in the nine-phase system, the low-order harmonics, such as the third-, fifth-, and seventh-
harmonic components, are considered in this paper, accompanied with the fundamental component.
Based on Equation (1), the stator voltage equations in the d1-q1 and dh-qh reference frames are:
ud 1  Rs id 1  Ld 1did 1 dt  Lq1iq1
uq1  Rs iq1  Lq1diq1 dt  ( Ld 1id 1   m )
u  R i  L di dt  hL i (4)
 dh s dh dh dh qh qh

u qh  Rs idh  Lqh di dh dt  h L dh iqh

Energies 2015, 8 10340

where Ld1 and Lq1 are stator inductance in d1-axis and q1-axis respectively, Ldh and Lqh are stator
inductance in dh-qh axis, Rs is the phase resistance, ω is the rotor electrical angular velocity, and m is
the flux linkage established by stator-PMs.
The electromagnetic torque can be derived from partial derivative of co-energy with respect to
mechanical rotor position as:
9  
Te  p  miq1   h( Ldh  Lqh )idh iqh  (5)
2  h 1,3 ,5 ,7 

where p is the number of pole-pairs. The electromagnetic torque is composed of two parts. The first
part is the PM torque, which arises from the interaction of the stator-PM flux and q1-axis stator current
component. The second part is the reluctance-torque component caused by inductance variation as
a function of the rotor position.

4. Control Strategies of NP-FSPM Motor

4.1. Torque-Speed Characteristic Analysis

As to traction of HEVs electric propulsion, high/smooth torque output in the low speed region and
a wide speed range in the constant-power region are preferable, to achieve fast torque response and
high-speed cruise performance [2]. Therefore, multiphase FSPM motors used in HEVs need to exert
a constant torque (CT) mode over the low-speed region and operate with field-weakening (FW) mode
in the high speed region. The typical torque-speed characteristic is given by Figure 4 [3].

Figure 4. Torque-speed characteristic of NP-FSPM.

This paper mainly focuses on the control and performance of the NP-FSPM motor in the
low-speed region.

4.2. Fully-Decoupled Current Control during Normal Operation

In normal operations, the electric propulsion should perform with low torque pulsation and fast
dynamic response. The majority of challenges in the NP-FSPM machine are related to the issues with
currents applied to the motor. According to Section 3, if VSD is applied to phase currents, the d1-q1
and dh-qh plane currents are directly controlled variables in the stator-flux-oriented scheme and
consequently can be effectively manipulated. This feature provides a very effective way to solve
Energies 2015, 8 10341

current-related issues and strongly supports stator-flux-oriented control as the recommended control
method for the NP-FSPM machine.
The control scheme is based on a conventional solution of synchronous current control using typical
linear proportional and integral (PI) controllers. Figure 5 presents the block diagram of the
fully-decoupled control scheme. Four pairs of synchronous current controllers in conjunction with
eight PIs are used to regulate both the d1-q1 plane currents and the dh-qh (h = 3, 5, 7) plane currents.
Since dh-qh is also a synchronous frame, any specific low-order harmonic (such as the third, the
fifth and the seventh) currents which would appear as dc components of the dh-qh current controller
through transformation T(θ) will be completely controlled. Consequently, to eliminate the unwanted
low-order harmonic currents, the reference currents in the dh-qh plane should always be:
*
idh  iqh
*
0 (6)

where “*” denotes the reference value.

Figure 5. Fully-decoupled current control scheme.

In order to improve the dynamic performance in terms of PI controller based current control, the
cross coupling effects between synchronous voltages should be cancelled out by feeding the following
positive compensation:
uddecoupled  Lq1iq1 u decoupled   hLqh iqh
1
u decoupled  L i   ,  dh (7)
 q1 d1 d1 m
decoupled
uqh  hLdh idh

On the basis of the mathematical model of the NP-FSPM motor, the decoupling system in the d1-q1
and dh-qh planes has the following simple transfer functions:
 I d 1( s ) 1  I dh ( s ) 1
U ( s )  R  L s U ( s )  R  L s
d1
 I q1( s )
s d1
, dh
 I qh ( s )
s dh
(8)
1 1
   
U q1( s ) Rs  Lq1s U qh ( s ) Rs  Lqh s

Due to the controllability of dh-qh plane currents, robust control voltage generation can be achieved
in terms of Equations (7) and (8), even in the condition of low-order harmonic currents caused by
motor parameter inaccuracies or nonlinear characteristics of the voltage source inverter (VSI). Hence,
Energies 2015, 8 10342

the significance of the accuracy of the NP-FSPM motor parameters in the fully-decoupled current
control scheme appears not to be a major problem.

4.3. Reconstruction of Harmonic Current Components during Post-Fault Operation

Moreover, the electric propulsion should also exhibit high fault tolerance in the event of a fault
condition. As the stator d1-q1 current components are required for the flux/torque control in the
NP-FSPM motor, another three pairs of stator harmonic current components (the third, the fifth and
the seventh), regarded as additional degree of freedom (ADF), can be effectively utilized for an
appropriate post-fault operating strategy. It should be noted that the ADFs have been used to deal with
open-circuit fault in multiphase machines for various specific aims, such as minimum loss or
maximum torque output [21–23]. However, there is no evidence that fault-tolerant controllability has
ever been attempted before by dispensing with these additional degrees of freedom. Hence, possibilities
for the implementation of a fault-tolerant operating strategy will be further elaborated.
In order to maintain the torque-producing current components iα1 and iβ1 during post-fault operation,
namely, to keep the undisturbed MMF, for the case with open-circuit fault in phase 1, the following
constrained optimization problem must be solved [13]:
Minimize: i12  i12  i32  i32  i52  i52  i72  i72 (9)
Subject to: 1 i1  0  i1  1 i3  0  i3  1 i5   0  i5  1 i7   0  i7  0 (10)
Based on the solution of stationary frame current components with minimum loss criteria
Equation (9), implementation of a fault-tolerant control strategy can be further achieved in terms of
seven kinds of harmonic current components reconstruction modes, which are listed in Table 2, where
Minor Reconstruction, Mid Reconstruction and Max Reconstruction, represent the amount of
modification in the current controller. Taking the first Minor Reconstruction mode as an example, only
the third harmonic current component iα3 is reconstructed to be −iα1 while the other harmonic current
components are still kept to be zero.

Table 2. Post-fault operation modes.

Minor Reconstruction Mid Reconstruction Max Reconstruction
iα3 = −iα1 iα3 = iα5 = −iα1/2
(iβ3 = iα5 = iβ5 = iα7 = iβ7 = 0) (iβ3 = iβ5 = iα7 = iβ7 = 0)
or or
iα5 = −iα1 iα3 = iα7 = −iα1/2 iα3 = iα5 = iα7 = −iα1/3
(iα3 = iβ3 = iβ5 = iα7 = iβ7 = 0) (iβ3 = iα5 = iβ5 = iβ7 = 0) (iβ3 = iβ5 = iβ7 = 0)
or or
iα7 = −iα1 iα5 = iα7 = −iα1/2
(iα3 = iβ3 = iα5 = iβ5 = iβ7 = 0) (iα3 = iβ3 = iβ5 = iβ7 = 0)

4.4. Carrier-Based Modulator

A well-defined switch frequency characteristic performed in the electric propulsion is also preferred.
On the other hand, current harmonics caused by non-sinusoidal air gap flux can be reduced by
Energies 2015, 8 10343

intentionally feeding the right combination of supply harmonic voltages to the machine. In order to
produce independent voltage vector in each d-q plane and ease the real-time implementation,
an equivalent space vector pulse-width-modulation (SVPWM) modulator using max-min injection is
adopted here.
First, by applying inverse T(θ), the reference phase voltage phasor Up is formed as:
U p  T 1(  )U dq (11)

where Up = [u1, u2, u3, u4, u5, u6, u7, u8, u9]T, Udq = [ud1, uq1, ud3, uq3, ud5, uq5, ud7, uq7]T.
Then, phase voltage references with max-min injection are compared with a high-frequency carrier
waveform (usually a triangular signal). The modulated signal can be given as:
Um  U p  U z (12)
where Uz represents the zero-sequence signal, which can be obtained as:
1
U z    max{ U p }  min {U p } (13)
2
Due to the similar modulation pattern used with conventional SVPWM, the same performances are
achieved with max-min injection, in terms of total harmonic distortion (THD), maximum voltage, etc. [24].
With regard to the design constraints, input voltages are limited by the inverter dc-link voltage Vdc,
which induces a hexagonal voltage boundary rotating in the d1-q1 voltage plane with angular speed ω.
For the sake of simplicity, the boundary can be approximated by the circle with radius Vdc/1.58,
inscribed in the hexagon.

4.5. Closed-Loop Speed Control

On the basis of a fully-decoupled current controller built as inner loop, the closed-loop speed
control constructed as outer loop is relatively straightforward in control of the motor to supply the
required amount of torque to the load at a given speed. In addition, the torque in an NP-FSPM motor is
a function of q1-axis current and stator-PM flux according to Equation (5). Hence, a PI regulator based
speed control is directly employed to determine the error between reference speed and actual speed,
and generates the torque-producing q1-axis reference current iq1*.
Figure 6 shows the block diagram of the closed-loop speed operation of the NP-FSPM motor.
It is a cascade structure made up of one speed controller and four pairs of d-q plane current
controllers. Furthermore, a software switch is utilized in the controller to select and activate healthy or
post-fault operation.
Energies 2015, 8 10344

Figure 6. Closed-loop speed control of NP-FSPM motor for HEV.

5. Simulation and Performance Analysis

The simulations were conducted to evaluate the control and performance of the NP-FSPM motor
drive. Due to the nature of the machine, the machine parameters vary significantly with load and
position. In order to have a realistic representation of the machine, finite-element analysis was used to
determine the PM flux linkage, self-inductances and mutual inductances as a function of position and
load. As a result, a physical phase variable model built in the MATLAB/Simulink environment was
adopted. The phase voltage and electromagnetic torque equations describing the NP-FSPM machine
can then be written as:
dI s L(  )
U p  RI s  L(  )  Is  E (14)
dt 
 1 L(  ) E
Te  p  ITs I s  ITs   Tc (  ) (15)
2  

where Is = [i1, i2,…, i8, i9]T is phase current phasor, R = diag(Rs, Rs,…, Rs, Rs) is the phase resistance
matrix, E = [e1, e2,…, e8, e9]T is back-EMF phasor, L(θ) is the stator inductance matrix, Tc(θ) is
cogging torque. The preferred inductance parameters are identified from dh- and qh- axis step responses
as listed in Table 3.

Table 3. Inductance parameters.

d1-q1 Plane d3-q3 Plane d5-q5 Plane d7-q7 Plane
id1 = 16.6 mH id3 = 14.9 mH id5 = 10.5 mH id7 = 4.1 mH
iq1 = 18.3 mH iq3 = 14.7 mH iq5 = 9.7mH iq7 = 4.2 mH

Firstly, the fully-decoupled current control is applied and tested to evaluate the steady-state
performance of the NP-FSPM motor drive. The proportional coefficients of PIs have been chosen in
order to obtain a crossover frequency with a safety margin to dead-time, and the integral coefficients of
PIs have been chosen in order to get critical damping behavior. The key parameters of those PIs are
Energies 2015, 8 10345

shown in Table 4. An outer speed control loop (PI controller) is then added to the control scheme
(Kp_speed = 0.35, and Ki_speed = 16) to evaluate the dynamic performance and reliability. The PWM
switching frequency is set to 10 kHz.

Table 4. Key parameters for inner proportional and integral (PIs).

d1-q1 Plane d3-q3 Plane d5-q5 Plane d7-q7 Plane
Kp_d1 = 320 Kp_d3 = 250 Kp_d5 = 50 Kp_d7 = 150
Ki_d1 = 20 Ki_d3 = 20 Ki_d5 = 20 Ki_d7 = 20
Kp_q1 = 320 Kp_q3 = 250 Kp_q5 = 50 Kp_q7 = 150
Ki_d1 = 20 Ki_d3 = 20 Ki_d5 = 20 Ki_d7 = 20

5.1. Steady-State Performance

In this simulation, the driver works in constant current control mode without or with closed-loop
harmonic current controller, the iq1 reference is 2.7 A. Figure 7a shows the case where current control
in the dh-qh (h = 3, 5, 7) plane is omitted. It can be seen that phase current contains rich current
harmonics because of the inability of the control to compensate the effect of the non-sinusoidal air-gap
flux. As a comparison, Figure 7b shows the case where fully decoupled current controls are operating
as developed in this paper. A major reduction can be seen in the magnitude of the harmonic currents
(second harmonic reduces 10% and third 20%), as shown in the FFT result. In addition, the steady-state
current errors in the dh-qh plane are effectively eliminated when the fully decoupled current control is
activated and the d3-axis and q3-axis current waveforms are given in Figure 7c. The results indicate
that the fully decoupled current control manages to suppress the low-order harmonics in the NP-FSPM
motor, hence ensuring sinusoidal phase currents.

Figure 7. Cont.
Energies 2015, 8 10346

Figure 7. Simulation evaluation of steady-state performance. (a) Without current control in

the dh-qh plane; (b) Fully-decoupled current control; (c) Steady-state current errors in d3-q3 plane.

In reality, some key motor parameters, such as stator resistance and mutual inductance, may change
during different working states influenced by temperature and magnetic saturation. To verify the
sensitivity of the control system to motor parameters, 5 Ω resistances are added between the machine
and the VSI of the phases 1 and 2 during the period from 720–2160 deg. For simplicity, the controllers
without current control in dh-qh plane and with fully-decoupled current control are referred to Mode-I
and Mode-II, respectively. Figure 8 presents the currents of phases 1, 2 and 3, showing that even
severe imbalance can be eliminated with fully-decoupled current control.

Figure 8. Phase currents in the imbalanced condition.

5.2. Dynamic Response

For a high performance drive system, the response to the speed control signal should be very fast,
and its dynamic transition should be as smooth as possible. Figure 9 shows the phase current, speed
and torque profiles of the NP-FSPM motor after the closed-loop speed operation is established.
During the acceleration period, the motor generates near the maximum torque to accelerate the inertia
up to the rated speed, taking 0.02 s from 0 to constant 300 rpm, and the controller adjusts the current
magnitude to control the speed.
The investigations under different load step changes are carried out and the results are shown in
Figure 10 (starts with 50 N·m at 0 s, then changes to 100 N·m at 0.01 s). Because of the decoupling
feedback between the current control axes, id1 and iq1 currents can in theory be controlled independently
despite simultaneous change of both currents in the transient response, thus enabling fast current
changes with negligible disturbance between axes. As seen from Figure 10b, the speed tracking is
Energies 2015, 8 10347

accurate but somewhat slow due to the large moment of inertia, with a transient response from 0.01 s
to 0.012 s. Nevertheless, the results demonstrate a good dynamic performance of the torque tracking.

Figure 9. Simulation evaluation of start-up performance. (a) Phase currents response;

(b) Speed and torque response.

Figure 10. Simulation evaluation of load step change performance. (a) d1-q1 plane currents
response; (b) Speed and torque response.

5.3. Post-Fault Operations

When the open-circuit fault occurs in the phase 1 winding at 0.02 s, the phase currents of the
NP-FSPM motor become uncontrollable and a torque ripple of 15% is apparent as shown in Figure 11a.
The simulation results of post-fault operations with Minor, Mid, and MAX Reconstruction modes are
shown in Figure 11b–d, respectively. It can be seen that all the three fault-tolerant modes are able to
bring the system back to proper operation. The torque oscillations are efficiently reduced, and the
system can be operated continuously and steadily after the open-circuit fault occurrence. Figure 11b
presents the phase currents and torque waveforms by reconstructing only the third harmonic current,
the highest peak current value (of phase-4) is about 98% higher than the peak value under the normal
condition. It must also be noted that the transient torque is relatively larger. While in the Mid
Reconstruction mode as shown in Figure 11c, where both the fifth harmonic and seventh harmonic
currents are simultaneously reconstructed, the highest peak value (of phase-6) becomes 41% higher.
In the post-fault operation, the minimum peak phase current value can be achieved in Max
Reconstruction mode, corresponding to a peak value of 3.8 A (phase-2), as shown in Figure 11d.
Furthermore, negligible transient torque is exhibited in Figure 11c,d.
Energies 2015, 8 10348

Figure 11. Simulation evaluation of post-fault operation. (a) Faulty operation;

(b) Minor Reconstruction; (c) Mid Reconstruction; (d) Max Reconstruction.

6. Experimental Validation

Figure 12 shows a photograph of the experiment setup. A prototype of 36/34-pole NP-FSPM motor
drive has been designed and built for verification. A custom-made nine-leg insulated gate bipolar
transistor (IGBT) based inverter is used to supply the motor. A permanent magnet DC motor is
mechanically coupled to the NP-FSPM motor as load. The complete control algorithm is implemented
on a PC-based dSPACE1005 controller board. Motor phase currents are measured (using the LEM
hall-effect current sensors) through dSPACE at a sampling frequency of 10 kHz.
Energies 2015, 8 10349

Figure 12. Experiment setup.

The steady-state performance of the fully-decoupled current control is presented in Figure 13.
As seen in Figure 13a, the phase current waveforms are sinusoidal and phase-shifted by 2π/9, which
are in good agreement with the theoretical ones shown in Figure 7. In addition, the NP-FSPM motor
operates steadily with low torque pulsation. Figure 13b shows the synchronous current component
traces in four pairs of synchronous frames. All the synchronous-frame current components are
theoretically controlled at zero, accompanied with a constant value (2.7 A) of stator q1-axis current,
hence ensuring well-decoupled drive system.

Figure 13. Experimental evaluation of steady-state performance with fully decoupled

current control. (a) (Traces 1–4) Measured phase current waveforms, and (Trace 5)
measured torque (6 ms/div, 5 A/div, 50 N·m/div); (b) (Traces 1–8) Measured synchronous
current components (6 ms/div, 2 A/div).

To test the dynamic performance of the closed-loop speed control, the machine starts with 50 N·m
load and then changes to the condition of 100 N·m load at 300 rpm. The measured responses under
sudden load step-change are shown in Figure 14, where the motor phase currents and torque follow the
Energies 2015, 8 10350

load torque rapidly; consequently, the motor speed returns to its reference value in a very short period,
demonstrating that the current control provides fast and accurate control, independently of the
operation mode of the machine.

Figure 14. Experimental evaluation of load step-change performance. (a) (Traces 1–4)
Measured phase current waveforms (15 ms/div, 5 A/div); (b) (Trace 1) Measured speed,
and (Trace 2) measured torque (15 ms/div, 100 rpm/div, 20 N·m/div).

Figure 15 shows the start-up current, speed and torque responses, confirming that the machine drive
offers good self-starting performance. It is worthy of mention that an instantaneous torque of up to
220 N·m can be achieved with an instantaneous peak value of phase current of only 6 A.

Figure 15. Experimental evaluation of start-up performance. (a) (Traces 1–2) Measured
phase current waveforms (25 ms/div, 5 A/div); (b) (Trace 1) Measured speed, and (Trace 2)
measured torque (25 ms/div, 100 rpm/div, 50 N·m/div).

In order to test the fault-tolerance of the NP-FSM motor drive system, an open-circuit fault was
forced to occur in phase 1, and the post-fault operation of the NP-FSPM motor evaluated. Figure 16
shows the response of current and torque before and after the remedial Mid Reconstruction mode
(iα5 = iα7 = −iα1/2). As expected, these current waveforms agree well with the simulated results shown
in Figure 11, with negligible torque pulsation during this transient, confirming that the machine drive
can achieve disturbance-free operation under fault conditions.
Energies 2015, 8 10351

Figure 16. Experimental evaluation of post-fault operation performance. (a) (Traces 1–4)
Measured phase current waveforms (5 ms/div, 5 A/div); (b) Measured torque (5 ms/div,
50 N·m/div).

7. Conclusions

FSPM motors with a higher number of phases offer better static torque capability with lower torque
ripple in steady-state operation as compared to conventional three-phase configurations. This paper has
investigated potential complexities in the dynamic control and reliability enhancement of a 36/34-pole
NP-FSPM motor for use in an HEV. For this purpose, a fully decoupled current control system is
designed based on vector space decomposition. Possibilities for the implementation of a fault-tolerant
operating strategy are further elaborated. Both simulation and experiments were conducted to verify
that the drive system and its controller are effective and reliable in ensuring the desired operation of
an HEV in the low-speed region.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China
under Project 2013CB035603.

Author Contributions

Ming Cheng and Kwok Tong Chau provided guidance and supervision; Feng Li performed the
Finite-element analysis; Feng Yu implemented the research, performed the simulation and
experimental analysis and wrote the paper. All authors have contributed significantly to this work.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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